5 ms·

Every time I read a story about some unassuming person getting rich off of doing what they love, I always ask myself: how can I do this? Step 1: find something

Every time I read a story about some unassuming person getting rich off of doing what they love, I always ask myself: how can I do this? Step 1: find something I love. Does lying in bed surfing the internet count? No? Damn.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
junto 13y ago
Based on your comment and your username, you must be in bed, drunk and surfing the internet! :-) Here's an idea for a simple app that prevents you from phoning / texting your ex when you're drunk in bed. You have to (previous to being drunk) mark all of your contacts that you aren't supposed to contact when drunk and give reasons. Use the acceleromter to test if the user is able to stand up straight. If not then block certain outgoing calls / texts. Then place ads in bars that say, "Don't drunk text your ex tonight. Download the app... DTP (Drunk Text Protector)". Hint: You can charge a little extra for the app because the user is probably part drunk anyway. ;-) So, as the user, you get drunk and get home and text your ex 'Anna' and the app says: Your message to Anna was blocked. You previously told me that she was "some crazy bitch who slept with your best friend". If you really want to text Anna, then you can use one of your "go on be a dumb ass" credits to bypass this drunk text lock. You currently have [0] credits. Click here to purchase some now. If you really want to text Anna then you can, but you have to buy a "I'm an idiot" credit pack as an in-app purchase, which gives you a number of credits to text / phone people you shouldn't. Profit!
- greenlander 13y ago
  lmfao
- thenmar 13y ago
  have you seen HBO's Girls? A character creates this app and starts a hip NYC startup
  - junto 13y ago
    I haven't seen it. It just goes to show you that the success of an app is all in the execution. Ideas mean (nearly) nothing. ;-)
- BigChiefSmokem 13y ago
  This app was also featured in the movie "The Internship" (starring Google and Sergey Brin on a bike).
- kd0amg 13y ago
  Use the acceleromter to test if the user is able to stand up straight. Riding on the bus/train can cause a lot of wobbling around. How well can an accelerometer-based system distinguish this from drunkenness?
  - jdbernard 13y ago
    It doesn't. That is a bonus feature for all the other people on the bus.
  - bliss 13y ago
    even worse, drunk people on a bus might hit the perfect storm where the swaying cancels out and lets them through! this feature request reminds me of my old (loved) email client that detected drunk emails and quietly filed them for sober review
kmfrk 13y ago
Step x: Get lucky. :)
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Hmmm, I thought that was Daft Punk... ;)
legohead 13y ago
you could lie in bed, surf internet, and do affiliate marketing!
romaniv 13y ago
The usual question is whether the person in the article got rich mostly because they were lucky, or mostly because they did something right, where everyone were doing it wrong. (I say 'mostly', because one doesn't completely preclude the other.) If you ask me, Notch mostly got lucky. There is nothing wrong with that, but I don't think anything he did or said warrants the gigantic personality cult that has grown around him. That cult exists mostly because of the money he made. IMO, Tarn Adams[1] is much more interesting to listen to. Maybe he doesn't have several million dollars in his bank account, but what ho does is truly inspiring on many levels, and much closer to what people can replicate in their lives with reasonable probability. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?_r=2&ref=technology&pagewanted=all& http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...
- benched 13y ago
  I won't call it luck, but there were certainly circumstances that enabled Minecraft. For example, Notch being born at the right stage of personal computers; the development of Infiniminer. But all successes will have such circumstances, because all events happen within a historical stream. I see the particular success of Minecraft coming from multiple overlapping individual components or features that are each works of genius. The piling up of so many feats of genius in one place produces runaway success. One of these features was borrowed from Infiniminer - the idea of the persistent, destructible/constructible world, modeled as a regular 3D grid to make it tractable, relatively simple to code, and easy to understand and manipulate. An innovation here is treating parts of the world like cellular automata at times (water, fire, etc). The next bit of genius is the crafting system. One might say other games had already done crafting, but I'd say none like Minecraft. Minecraft captured an earthy, complete-feeling microcosm of the whole supply chain. It captures something deeply geological, anthropological, and primal. This is the part of the game that, once I had figured out the very basics of wood and stone, my jaw fell on the floor, because I then intuited where Notch was going with it. How comprehensive and primal it was. I'd played plenty of games with 'crafting' before, and this was something very different. More natural, more tiered, more 'realistic' even though still a simplified model compared to the real world. Next, the very effective use of lighting as a mechanic. The terror of being exposed on the surface, and the claustrophobia in tight underground packages. The breadcrumb trail mechanic of torches. Other games have used light before, but I struggle to think of one that used it quite like this. Finally, Minecraft has the type of polish that comes from intentional simplicity, so that you don't even notice it. Part of this is very, very good controls. Another is perfect collision detection, made possible by the simple 3D grid structure. Even though this kind of thing is notable for what you don't notice, it comes from Notch being a good game programmer with a good grasp of 3D programming. Not just anyone could have realized these ideas in such a polished way, even if they had the ideas. Sure, everyone is a product of their environment, the time they live in, their influences and so forth. You can say that about anyone. But with Minecraft, Notch did a perfect storm of right things, and it resonated with millions of people.
GauntletWizard 13y ago
Another takeaway: Notch didn't just create a good game; He got lucky with his marketing. Infiniminer came first, did a lot of things better, but ultimately failed due to fragmentation.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

junto 13y ago

Based on your comment and your username, you must be in bed, drunk and surfing the internet! :-) Here's an idea for a simple app that prevents you from phoning / texting your ex when you're drunk in bed. You have to (previous to being drunk) mark all of your contacts that you aren't supposed to contact when drunk and give reasons. Use the acceleromter to test if the user is able to stand up straight. If not then block certain outgoing calls / texts. Then place ads in bars that say, "Don't drunk text your ex tonight. Download the app... DTP (Drunk Text Protector)". Hint: You can charge a little extra for the app because the user is probably part drunk anyway. ;-) So, as the user, you get drunk and get home and text your ex 'Anna' and the app says: Your message to Anna was blocked. You previously told me that she was "some crazy bitch who slept with your best friend". If you really want to text Anna, then you can use one of your "go on be a dumb ass" credits to bypass this drunk text lock. You currently have [0] credits. Click here to purchase some now. If you really want to text Anna then you can, but you have to buy a "I'm an idiot" credit pack as an in-app purchase, which gives you a number of credits to text / phone people you shouldn't. Profit!

greenlander 13y ago
lmfao
thenmar 13y ago
have you seen HBO's Girls? A character creates this app and starts a hip NYC startup
- junto 13y ago
  I haven't seen it. It just goes to show you that the success of an app is all in the execution. Ideas mean (nearly) nothing. ;-)
BigChiefSmokem 13y ago
This app was also featured in the movie "The Internship" (starring Google and Sergey Brin on a bike).
kd0amg 13y ago
Use the acceleromter to test if the user is able to stand up straight. Riding on the bus/train can cause a lot of wobbling around. How well can an accelerometer-based system distinguish this from drunkenness?
- jdbernard 13y ago
  It doesn't. That is a bonus feature for all the other people on the bus.
- bliss 13y ago
  even worse, drunk people on a bus might hit the perfect storm where the swaying cancels out and lets them through! this feature request reminds me of my old (loved) email client that detected drunk emails and quietly filed them for sober review

kmfrk 13y ago

Step x: Get lucky. :)

alan_cx 13y ago
Hmmm, I thought that was Daft Punk... ;)

legohead 13y ago

you could lie in bed, surf internet, and do affiliate marketing!

romaniv 13y ago

The usual question is whether the person in the article got rich mostly because they were lucky, or mostly because they did something right, where everyone were doing it wrong. (I say 'mostly', because one doesn't completely preclude the other.) If you ask me, Notch mostly got lucky. There is nothing wrong with that, but I don't think anything he did or said warrants the gigantic personality cult that has grown around him. That cult exists mostly because of the money he made. IMO, Tarn Adams[1] is much more interesting to listen to. Maybe he doesn't have several million dollars in his bank account, but what ho does is truly inspiring on many levels, and much closer to what people can replicate in their lives with reasonable probability. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?_r=2&ref=technology&pagewanted=all& http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...

benched 13y ago
I won't call it luck, but there were certainly circumstances that enabled Minecraft. For example, Notch being born at the right stage of personal computers; the development of Infiniminer. But all successes will have such circumstances, because all events happen within a historical stream. I see the particular success of Minecraft coming from multiple overlapping individual components or features that are each works of genius. The piling up of so many feats of genius in one place produces runaway success. One of these features was borrowed from Infiniminer - the idea of the persistent, destructible/constructible world, modeled as a regular 3D grid to make it tractable, relatively simple to code, and easy to understand and manipulate. An innovation here is treating parts of the world like cellular automata at times (water, fire, etc). The next bit of genius is the crafting system. One might say other games had already done crafting, but I'd say none like Minecraft. Minecraft captured an earthy, complete-feeling microcosm of the whole supply chain. It captures something deeply geological, anthropological, and primal. This is the part of the game that, once I had figured out the very basics of wood and stone, my jaw fell on the floor, because I then intuited where Notch was going with it. How comprehensive and primal it was. I'd played plenty of games with 'crafting' before, and this was something very different. More natural, more tiered, more 'realistic' even though still a simplified model compared to the real world. Next, the very effective use of lighting as a mechanic. The terror of being exposed on the surface, and the claustrophobia in tight underground packages. The breadcrumb trail mechanic of torches. Other games have used light before, but I struggle to think of one that used it quite like this. Finally, Minecraft has the type of polish that comes from intentional simplicity, so that you don't even notice it. Part of this is very, very good controls. Another is perfect collision detection, made possible by the simple 3D grid structure. Even though this kind of thing is notable for what you don't notice, it comes from Notch being a good game programmer with a good grasp of 3D programming. Not just anyone could have realized these ideas in such a polished way, even if they had the ideas. Sure, everyone is a product of their environment, the time they live in, their influences and so forth. You can say that about anyone. But with Minecraft, Notch did a perfect storm of right things, and it resonated with millions of people.

GauntletWizard 13y ago

Another takeaway: Notch didn't just create a good game; He got lucky with his marketing. Infiniminer came first, did a lot of things better, but ultimately failed due to fragmentation.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]